The folks at the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) probably want to hide their heads down under right about now.
The bank admitted Thursday that there was a printing error on the country’s new $50 note, resulting in a typo appearing on approximately C$2.1-billion worth of currency.
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Australia’s latest note, released in October, was exchanged and used for more than six months by its citizens without anyone being the wiser.
You’d have to be pretty eagle-eyed to catch this typo, however — an Instagram post by an Australian radio brand Triple M first highlighted the misspelled word “responsibility” in the bill’s microprint, after a listener posted a photo to social media.
The radio station’s post displayed the currency under a magnifying glass, showing the typo above social reformer Edith Cowan’s right shoulder. (Cowan was the first Australian woman to serve as a Member of Parliament, and has been featured on the country’s banknotes since 1995.)
An RBA spokesperson admitted to the mistake and said the spelling would be corrected during the next print run — but those notes won’t reach circulation until the end of 2019.
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“The process of designing and printing a banknote is complex and iterative,” the RBA spokesperson said. “We have strict quality assurance processes, but like any manufacturing process, errors can occur. We have reviewed our processes to remove the likelihood of such an error occurring in the future.”
The last print run produced 46 million of the misspelled notes.